Overview: Music playback behavior

Music-playback behavior includes track continuity, codec delay, sample preservation and the relationship between speed and pitch.

A brief gap between songs can arise from timing or encoder-delay handling even when both tracks decode correctly. Other questions concern whether samples change before output or how a speed change affects pitch. These pages focus on the boundaries between stored tracks and the continuous signal the listener hears.

• Gapless playback
  Gapless playback joins the intended audio of adjacent tracks without inserting a player-created pause or replaying codec padding.

• Audio encoder delay
  Encoder delay and end padding are extra decoded frames introduced by codec processing and block alignment that need correct timing and trim information.

• Bit-perfect playback
  Bit-perfect playback preserves a defined decoded sample sequence through a specified part of the audio output path.

• Playback speed and audio pitch
  Playback speed can alter both duration and pitch, while time-scale processing changes duration while largely preserving the original pitch.